The Composer
by She Who Shall Go Nameless
Summary: I was short, and meek, and scared. A Kelsey fic.


_Hey y'all, this is my first HSM fic so I'd thought I'd ask you all to go a little easy. Reviews are always appreciated, just not flames so much. Okay, just so you know, I think the storyline for HSM sucks, but hey I still watch it. My favorite characters are Ryan and Kelsey, who are both sadly underrepresented in the movies. You will probably be seeing a Ryan fic out shortly. Anyways, here it is, hope it's alright._

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**The Composer**

I was always picked on. I was short, meek, and scared. I let Sharpay walk all over me, and Ryan wasn't any better. I wrote a song, they made it 'better.' Such was the way of things until Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez changed it up.

It was time for auditions for the winter musical, junior year. I was still short and meek and scared of the Evans' demeaning manner. The auditions didn't go well. There was barely any talent, and I'm sorry to say that the only true talent was Sharpay and Ryan. Big surprise, since anyone with a chance to beat them out was likely drugged and bound on audition days.

They sang the song well, for _them. _But it wasn't _my _song anymore. It was fast and happy. It was supposed to sound slow and, well, loving. But then, if Sharpay was capable of love she might not be wasting her time ruining my songs.

Auditions ended. Ryan and Sharpay were bound to get the leads, as they were the only couple having tried out, so I was acclimating myself to that sad fact when the new girl ran up to Ms. Darbiss, requesting an audition.

_Please! _I screamed silently. _Give her a chance! _Anything Gabriella could dish out had to be better than Sharpay.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Montez," Ms. Darbiss proclaimed, and my heart sank right down to the floor. "The individual auditions are over, and there are simply no other pairs."

I nearly died as none other than cute, talented, should-be-in-basketball-practice-right-now Troy Bolton walked into the theatre, his arm raised, looking distinctly ruffled.

"I'll sing with her!" he called to Ms. Darbiss. _Please, _I pleaded with her in my head. _Surely even Troy Bolton would be better than Sharpay!_

Ms. Darbiss, always having mistrusted Troy, refused to budge on the matter. She left the theatre. I got up to leave, mentally preparing myself for another miserable six weeks, and promptly tripped over who-knows-what. All of the music in my folder went flying.

To my supreme wonder, Gabriella and Troy ran over to help me. Gathering up my papers, Troy offered me his hand up. _Wow, _I thought. _Theatre people should take manners classes from the jocks._ Not only would a 'theatre-people' not have given me a hand up, they likely would not have noticed me falling in the first place.

"So, why are you so afraid of Ryan and Sharpay? I mean, it _is_ your show," Was that Troy Bolton talking to me? Surely not. It must be his twin. But it sounded like him, he was looking at me, and he sounded sincere. Wait. Did he just say it was _my show?? _Since when?

"It is?" I asked, dazed. How could it be my show? How could I be so miserable about_ my own show_?

"Of course," he said, drilling into me in a friendly way with those intense eyes of his. "Isn't the composer of a show a bit like the playmaker in basketball?"

"Playmaker?" _Was he still speaking English? _It had to be English. Troy didn't really strike me as the type to learn Finnish or something like that. Actually, I'm not sure Finnish is offered at East High. Possibly Bulgarian.

"You know, in basketball. The one who makes everyone else look good. You're the playmaker here, Kelsey."

He knew my name. That was almost as big a shock as him even being here. Wow. Suddenly I wanted to help them. If only I could have changed Ms. Darbiss' mind for her, and they could have their audition. All, well. I would settle for the next best thing.

"Would you like to hear how the duet's supposed to sound?" I asked them, hurrying over to the piano. To my delight, they followed. I struck the first chord. The second. The third. Then Troy started _singing_. Gosh, could he sing. I almost stopped playing from the shock of it, but I caught myself in time.

"_It's hard to believe  
that I couldn't see  
you were always right beside me."_

I was equally as impressed with Gabriella. She had a beautiful voice. I wished so sincerely that they could have auditioned that it hurt. We reached the end of the song.

"It's nice," Troy told me. I smiled.

We all jumped about a mile when Ms. Darbiss' harsh voice split the air like an axe. "Bolton, Montez, you have a callback. Kelsey, give them the duet from the second act. Work on it with them."

I dug out the other duet and attempted to hand it to both of them. Gabriella took it with a smile, but I nearly had to force Troy's hand shut around it. He looked thunderstruck. _His friends don't know he's here. _

All the while I was babbling at them, giddy with excitement. "Alright. You can come and rehearse with me, I'm here at lunch and after school, and even sometimes during biology class, or you could come over for breakfast, I have a piano we can use then, or for dinner, I'm sure my parents won't mind. Or after basketball class…"

If they wanted to practice at midnight, I would do it. They had to get this audition. They had to. _And I'll ensure that they do._

This was going to be a much better musical than last year.

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_So, there it is, and I hoped you liked it. Reviews are nice. I promise to review your work if you do mine._ ;p


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